l not stir a peg
Until his fill he's drunk;
The elephant is loud and cross
Until he checks his trunk;

"The tortoise always comes too late;
The hare a day ahead.
I'd hate to be the engineer
Of the Wild Beast Limited."

SEPTEMBER

_IX_

_SEPTEMBER_

[Illustration: _Libra_]

Very familiar September seemed:
A flag-pole stood in the yard,
And the little path that led from the road
Was trampled bare and hard.
A bell hung high in the little tower,
And when the door swung wide
They saw a young woman with pen in hand,
Writing away inside.

[Illustration: _Very familiar September seemed_]

The young woman rose and came smilingly to the door. A clock somewhere
inside struck nine, with quick, sharp strokes.

It sounded so familiar, somehow, that the children cried in alarm, "Oh,
it's time for school!"

[Illustration]

"Not quite, for you scholars," the teacher said. "But folks and things in
there"--she nodded toward the schoolroom--"are ready and waiting."

Amos and Ann peered past her through the door, but they could see nothing
except desks and seats.

"I suppose Columbus has sailed, by this time," remarked the Journeying
Man.

"Oh, yes," the young woman replied. "Furthermore, the Mississippi is
flowing into the Gulf of Mexico as hard as it can, and rice is growing in
Japan."

The children understood, now, and they were both laughing. "Are the
prepositions and adverbs in their places?" they asked.

"Multiplication tables set, I suppose?" said J. M.

"Certainly," the teacher answered. "And the tables of weights and
measures, too. And many things are here in addition."

"How," asked little Ann, "do the children in Zodiac Town know when it's
time for school to open?"

"Just the way the children in any other town know," the teacher replied.

"When bees and birds and butterflies
Have grown a little lazy;
When flowers are rare, with here and there
A late rose or a daisy;
When streams are slow, and water's low
Down in the swimming-pool,
And grass burns brown along the lane,
And goldenrod is bright again--
There's something tells you just as plain,
'Time for school!'

"When apples in the orchard lot
And pears come thumping, falling;
When sweet and clear, far off and near,
The bobwhite's voice is calling;
When crickets trill out on